Re: Some questions on Karma in Hinduism
Originally Posted by
explorer_of_the_mind
I recently saw a travel guide about India, and the narrator attended a Hindu festival (I forget which one). There were devout Hindus bathing in the local river, and the narrator says that they believe that they can wash away their bad karma by bathing in the river.
Is this true about Hinduism? Are certain rituals, like the one described above, believed to wash away bad karma that one has committed? I'd like to learn more about Hindu beliefs regarding karma, because I'm mostly familiar with karma in the Buddhist tradition.
Any information would be much appreciated.
Namaste,
Both Shri Yajvan and Agnideva have explained nicely.
I once had the opportunity to take a dip myself and I can say that it did make a difference -- for a considerable time after the dip the mind was a different mind, worriless, free, light, full of sweetness.
As Agnideva said, the effect might be on the strength and purity of mind rather that on mitigation of karma itself. Actually karma is the effect of happenings on the mind. A mind detached to happenings around will not be affected to the extent a mind, which broods on happenings (in respect of their impact on one's ego self), will be affected. On the other hand, an unpalatable result (accruing from a bad karma) may result to further bad karma due to a bitter mind.
Water that we see is physical. But everything has a subtle counterpart which again has a counterpart in god's thought in consciousness, which is interlinked and ONE. That is how we feel the burden and pain of close friends and relatives even from a distance.
How God works is inscrutable. But I can say that till one cannot abide solely in the Self (for solace and support), good reading, associating with sadhus, visiting holy places and special occassions like kumbha dip all have their value.
There may be some myth. But beneath the myth truth is there for the pure minded. There is no strength like the strength attained on complete surrender.
Om Namah Shivayya
That which is without letters (parts) is the Fourth, beyond apprehension through ordinary means, the cessation of the phenomenal world, the auspicious and the non-dual. Thus Om is certainly the Self. He who knows thus enters the Self by the Self.
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